The earliest crop means an early harvest and ideal entry for wheat

A farmer in West Yorkshire is celebrating the fact that his crop of Alienor was one of the earliest to flower in the UK and his reward was not only a case of champagne courtesy of Grainseed, but the reassurance that he will be able to harvest his rape early and prepare the land well in advance of his next wheat crop.

Andrew Wilkin of Wilkin Partners, Welwick, East Yorkshire drilled his Alienor oilseed rape on the 23rd of August at a seed rate of 4 kg/ha using a Sumo trio and Vaderstad drill. He remarks that, compared to his other rape crops Alienor established well and developed particularly well in the autumn and into the spring. "Comparing this to another conventional rape on the farm,Castille, in the spring this crop was nowhere near as advanced as the Alienor was."

Andrew is keen to have an early maturing rape variety as it means that he can harvest early, use glyphosate for weed control in a stale seed bed, plough where necessary and still have time to get his wheat in on time. "We struggle with black-grass on the farm as well as crane’s-bill and wild radish, and need to take whatever opportunity we can to be able to reduce the weed population. Stale seedbed techniques have become more important with the loss of several more herbicides, but for this technique to work practically we need an early maturing rape that can be taken off the field early and so allow time for weed control. In the past we have struggled to establish wheat land after oilseed rape and we need a vigorous rape variety to help us do this. An early variety such as Alienor is an important consideration as it helps with more efficient and timely management of the farm."

Brian Beeney of East Riding Crop Consultancy who looks after Mr Wilkin’s crops confirmed that the Alienor showed good vigour and early maturity. "We were looking for a conventional variety of rape that yields well, matures early and has good Phoma resistance. Its earliness helps spread the workload at harvest, important for Mr Wilkin who harvests his own rape as well as rape for other farmers in the area. Early maturing varieties also fit better into a normal crop rotation. If Alienor yields OK this year, we shall certainly want to grow it again, probably on around 20% of the rape land."

"Alienor is very early maturing and has shown significant crop vigour in the autumn and into the spring, ahead of hybrids. Many farmers were caught out last year with the later maturing varieties as they interfered with standard crop rotations. They won’t want to be caught out again," claims John Hardy of Grainseed.

"Alienor is a low biomass variety with an average height of just 147 cms, close to that of Castille at 144 cms. This means that it is less likely to lodge, has less bulk to go through the combine and is quicker and easier to harvest."

Alienor has the best combined disease resistance ratings of any conventional variety, with a 7.4 for Phoma and a 6.2 for Light leaf Spot, making this variety suitable for all parts of the UK. The basis of Alienor’s resistance is multigenic and so will last," reports John.

John Hardy concludes that Alienor has a unique combination of yield and agronomic characteristics that make it well worth considering for planting this year anywhere in the UK for early harvesting. "Its overall package allows much easier and less costly inputs without compromising on yield, plus great ease of management."

For further comment and information on the oilseed rape varieties Es Alienor or other Grainseed varieties such as Es Astrid, please contact John Hardy, Director of Grainseed Ltd on 01379 871073 or 07836 582436.